The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the injunction on Monday issued by a lower court that stopped Pres. Obama’s 2014 executive amnesty (DAPA) from taking effect. In a 2 to 1 vote the court agreed that Pres. Obama’s executive action affected more than just the enforcement of immigration laws but would give legal status and work permits to millions of illegal aliens.
Through DAPA, approximately 5 million illegal aliens would have received work permits, which would then qualify them for other state and federal benefits such as welfare and driver’s licenses, essentially granting them legal status.
“At its core, this case is about the Secretary’s decision to change the immigration classification of millions of illegal aliens on a class-wide basis,” wrote Judge Jerry Smith in his majority opinion.
“The INA flatly does not permit the reclassification of millions of illegal aliens as lawfully present and thereby make them newly eligible for a host of federal and state benefits, including work authorization,” Judge Smith wrote.
The lawsuit, led by Texas, was filed by 26 states earlier this year. Texas Federal Judge Andrew Hanen issued the initial temporary inunction in February. The Obama administration made an emergency appeal to the Fifth Circuit over the summer, but the Court rejected the appeal.
“The president must follow the rule of law, just like everybody else,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Monday. “Throughout this whole process, the Obama Administration has aggressively disregarded the constitutional limits on executive power.”
Since the Fifth Circuit Court upheld the injunction, the next step is for the Obama administration to appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the Justice Department has to file the cert petition by November 20th in order to get the case in front of the Supreme Court for the January 8 conference, the last full Supreme Court term of Pres. Obama’s presidency. Then it would be up to the Supreme Court if they wanted to take up the case or not.
Read more on this story at The Atlantic.
